The Electoral Forum, an Electoral Hub initiative, has urged for immediate judicial reform to ensure that court judgments and verdicts do not threaten Nigeria’s democracy.
Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, Chairman of the Forum, announced this as part of the recommendations made during the Forum’s recent Eighth Technical Session.
Olukoshi observed that current political tendencies were multitasking and demanded multi-stakeholder engagement.
Fuel scarcity, the newly redesigned currency, concerns about adequate training of ad hoc staff to correctly record and upload accreditation details, and the BVAs in light of the recent Osun governorship judgment, which nullified the election due to overvoting, and the allocation of BVAs based on the number of PVCs collected, he said.
In light of recent Supreme Court decisions, he stated that the Forum believes the judiciary must be held accountable to ensure that their judgments and verdicts do not endanger the country’s electoral system.
He emphasized that election-related issues should not be resolved on a technical basis and that if elections are found to be invalid, reruns should be held to ensure that electoral outcomes are solely the result of the popular vote, adding that this would instill confidence and keep people’s faith in the electoral process.
Olukoshi, who voiced concern about the Supreme Court judgment’s impact on the electoral process and its bad impact on many Nigerians’ perception of the political process, advocated for urgent judicial reform.
Olukoshi went on to say that INEC should activate its rapid reaction communication system in the event of false news to ensure that the public has speedy access to factual information and to prevent hackers from tampering with results from the INEC Result Viewing webpage (IReV).
Concerning anticipated and unexpected risks to the 2023 general elections, he identified ten threats as follows: security, trust deficit, judiciary, infrastructure, tight presidential race, voters’ access and voting rights, electoral technology, internal sabotage within the EMB, vote trading, and rising youth expectations in the electoral process, as evidenced by how youths are mobilizing for the election.
He also emphasized the importance of taking into account the high cost of elections, including the budgetary allocation to INEC and how it may affect election preparations, as well as the costs incurred by various electoral stakeholders, such as legitimate logistical costs incurred by candidates and political parties during electioneering and on election days.
The Forum is inviting all electoral stakeholders in Nigeria to join its campaign for better electoral governance.
